Mattie Edwards Hewitt

American, 1869-1956

Mattie Edwards Hewitt learned photography from her husband Arthur F. Hewitt in Saint Louis in the 1890s. They both are listed as photographers with the Artist Photo Print Co. in the 1897 city directory (though she does not appear in subsequent editions). She met the photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901, and they began a friendship and working partnership. Though Johnston was based in Washington, DC, Hewitt printed her negatives from Saint Louis. In 1909 Arthur and Mattie divorced, and she briefly joined Johnston in Washington before establishing her own studio in New York in 1910. In 1913 Johnston relocated to New York and the two partnered as Johnston & Hewitt (later, Johnston-Hewitt Studio). The studio specialized in architectural views. Though divorced, Hewitt is identified as Mrs. Mattie E. Hewitt throughout. The partnership, both professional and personal, ended in 1917. The 1920 census lists Hewitt as living with Louise Edwards, the same woman with whom she had boarded in 1910. Given the shared name, it isn't clear whether there was a familial or other relation, or whether it was a coincidence. Hewitt's relation to the head of household in 1920 was given as "Friend". Her studio continued at the former Johnston & Hewitt address until at least 1933. In the 1940s, and as late as 1953, she was a photographer in Flushing, Queens. In 1955 she was listed in the Boston directory without an occupation, and she died there in February of the following year.